Seismic security

YELLOWSTONE’S STEAMBOAT GEYSER ERUPTED MORE TIMES IN 2018 THAN ANY OTHER YEAR ON RECORD

Yellowstone National Park’s Steamboat geyser—the tallest active geyser in the world—had a record-breaking year in 2018. It experienced more water eruptions over the calendar year than any other since records began.

A statement from the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO), which is part of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program, said that throughout 2018 the Steamboat geyser produced 32 eruptions. This, it said, breaks the record of 29, set in 1964.

The geyser was on a par with the 1964 record until December, when there were three eruptions on the 8th, 17th and 25th. The YVO noted that the geyser became more active in May 2018, saying it appeared to have “entered a phase of more frequent water eruptions, much like it did in the 1960s and early 1980s.”

It continued, “Although these eruptions do not have any implications for future volcanic activity at Yellowstone—after all, geysers are supposed to erupt, and most are erratic, like Steamboat—they are nonetheless spectacular.”